virtualbox.org

Due to space limitations, I've been thinking of deleting my Windows VM. I'm not concerned about any loss of data on the VM. The only thing I'm concerned about is the Windows 10 license/product key that I've used on it. I want to make sure that if I decide to rebuild the Windows VM, perhaps at a smaller storage size in the future, would I be able to re-use the product key?

The largest files, are the .vdi hard disk file and the .vdi image file (if I'm using the correct terminology). What would happen if I deleted those files and kept the .vbox and .vbox-prev files? What would happen if I deleted the VM all together?

(I'm using VirtualBox on a Mac OSX host)

I would not delete it until I had an offline copy. Windows does not like you changing the "hardware" of an activated machine. I would copy the whole vm folder to external storage before deleting it from the VMs folder. You can then copy it back and re-register it if you need it. Once you are sure it has re-activated you can change it, even do a clean install and it will activate with a digital license.

Ahh. I think I will do that. Thanks!